For the past 40 years, Icarus Films has been Jonathan Miller's vehicle for showing films that may not have found an audience any other way. If you want to know something about Miller's tastes, you only need to review the 1000+ titles accumulated in their current catalog, as he is the sole arbiter of what becomes an Icarus film. The folks at Metrograph, New York’s relatively new theater/hangout for cinephiles, have made getting to know Icarus—and by inference, Miller—easier, by curating 56 titles from the collection to screen at their Ludlow Street location from September 14-30. Although Miller
Latest Posts
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Forty-five years after it revolutionized abortion law in America, the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade is once again at a crossroads. In their timely new documentary Reversing Roe, which premieres September 13 on Netflix, filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg present a deeply illuminating look of the state of abortion and women's rights in America. Drawing from a wealth of historical footage, it charts the period leading up to the Roe decision—and documents
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Marisa Guthrie speaks with female directors about gender bias in the documentary field for The Hollywood Reporter. At a time when the market for nonfiction film and television is exploding, THR gathered Blair Foster, Alison Ellwood, Sarah Dowland and Stacey Offman, as well as Caroline Suh — who is directing the
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s My Winnepeg, which streams this month on Mubi. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this work, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome. RBG, which continues to rack up impressive numbers at the box office, airs on CNN this Sunday, September 9, in a special encore broadcast. The film, directed by Betsy
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Daniele Alcinii, news editor at Real Screen breaks down the 27 documentary films set to screen at TIFF. An extensive slate of documentaries will be in the limelight during the 43rd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, with 27 feature films set to screen as part of TIFF Docs across the city. As we
Documentary is a challenging art form. It can take you to challenging situations—war zones, harsh climates—and it can introduce you to challenging people. And on a day-to-day basis, there are the uncertainties of fundraising and the daunting prospects of sustaining a career and having a life. At a certain point in the trajectory, you retreat and assess the fact that while the path you're on is your purpose and your passion, even that which defines you can take an emotional and psychological toll. The help you really need goes beyond filmmaking and fundraising. That was the epiphany for
Perhaps it is not surprising that in a community so deeply rooted in social issue activism and environmental concerns, the word "sustainability" would eventually become such a common-place term in the documentary field. Nor is it surprising, given the widespread disruptions in the marketplace wrought by digital platforms and other changes, that sustainability—both for filmmakers and for the broader documentary ecosystem—would become a critical issue for documentary practitioners and industry players. Filmmaker Maggie Bowman describes the conversations around sustainability "as a kind of
During every phase of production, documentary filmmakers are required to articulate their expansive artistic vision and months or years of work in a few compelling sentences. In pre-production and production, succinct summaries are pitched to funders and collaborators, and in pitch forums. To reach the distribution finish line, post-production may require pitching to festivals, distributors, commissioning editors, broadcasters and other gatekeepers. And finally, when the film finds distribution, the filmmaker pitches to the media, viewing audiences, influencers and issue-centered
Joshua Glick's meticulously researched book, Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958-1977, melds, as its title states, a practical approach to documentary studies with the less well-defined field of public history. The website for the National Council on Public History explains, "The public history 'movement' emerged in the United States and Canada in the 1970s, gaining visibility and influence through the establishment of public and applied history programs at universities" and "…retains characteristics of a movement through the on-going commitments of many current
When Tom White invited me chose the film I'd most want to have with me should I be left on a desert island, I found the challenge insurmountable. After all, I had programmed, along with dear colleagues, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival for 10 years before beginning to make films myself. I had too many favorites to name, too many filmmakers I admired, and too many films that inspired me in life and in practice. The list was ridiculous; I knew I needed to answer a key question: If stuck on that island, would I ever get off? If not, then the film would need to help me cope with the end of